Month: February 2015

February’s presentation was by Don Huffer, who had designed a vertical or horizontal router lift and table.

Don Huffer

His will allow you to install the router either vertically or horizontally, with a screw action to raise and lower the router and bit within the table. His lift is made from wood and regular bolts and screws. With his lift, he can do router adjustments as fine as 1/1000th of an inch. Unlike other lifts his does not hang on the table top, but attaches to the inside of the table instead. This allows the top of the table to be raised on hinges. The fence on his table came from Fine Woodworking, but the table and the lift are all his design. He assembled his table without glue, just using screws. Don handed out DVD’s with the plans for how to build the router lift and table. They include descriptions and pictures. He normally sells these plans all over the world on ebay for $20. Thanks Don. A copy of these plans will be in our library.

Announcements:

Dues are due.

Denny Wetter will have a Turners’ Meet Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m.

Fred Damianos will host the Shop Meet, Monday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m.

State Fair fine woodworking supervision is all set; tickets are handed out.

Woodworkers Show in Tampa, March 20-22. Terry Bair still needs help with our table.

The man cut down the pecan tree; two of our members got some wood.

Mike Swart brought in some camphor to give away.

Thelma Proctor brought in some orange and other wood to give away.

Mike Swart will be bringing some ash and red oak to sell, the end of June

Floyd has some Bischofia wood from a tree he cut down to give away

John Philips brought in the obituary for Harold Lowery

Next meeting: March 11

Tredway Childress encouraged us to go see the pentathlon; 3 members helped build for it

Ed Fraser said the SunCoast Science Center will have machinery for wood and metal cutting

Ask the Experts:

John Slezak fielded questions about band saws—maximum width blade size, why a wheel comes off, what to use to support re-sawing, a source for custom blades, why we should keep wood away from sand, how to band saw green wood.

We had the biggest turnout ever at the January turners meet. Denny demonstrated how to make a bowel from a single piece of wood. The trick is to cut out concentric circles with the blade at an angle and then glue them together in reverse order. You can do this on a band saw if you make half circles and then glue them back together. Or, if you have a scroll saw you can cut them out without having to cutting them in half. The bowels end up in a basic funnel shape if you use one board, but you can get other shapes if you use two boards and take every other layer from each board. You can add variety to the piece by gluing together different kinds of wood into a single board.

January’s presentation was by Steve Sherman, a micro-woodturning master. Steve used to be a flat boarder, but once he tried a lathe, he never went back. As he experimented with using the standard turning tools, he saw the value of some modifications. He worked with a tool and die maker to make some new tools, which they sold for a while. In his demonstration, he showed what he could do with a modified tool that is popular with woodturners today. He passed around examples of his jewelry, ornaments, and hollow forms that were exceptionally fine.

Announcements:

Dues are due.

Denny Wetter will have a Turners’ Meet on January 19. After Jan. turners’ meets will happen on Wednesdays, not Mondays

State Fair table is February 15-16. John Darovec still needs some volunteers..

John and Susan Darovec, Denny Wetter, and Fred Damianos went to the American Association of Woodturners symposium in Lake Yale, FL last weekend. Many demonstrations there to attend and not too expensive.

Woodworkers Show in Tampa is March 20-22. Terry Bair still needs volunteers, who should wear their club shirts and name tags. He also needs us to bring examples of work that he can take to show there at our booth.

There is a man in Bradenton who is about to cut down 2 pecan trees and give us the wood.

Kimal Lumber will give us a discount on lumber and a very good price on cut offs.

Next meeting: February 11. This will not be a tool auction, but we can bring items to try to sell during the meeting.

Ask the Experts: Joe Mathis and Terry Bair fielded questions about scroll sawing—how to prevent fuzz from stacked cuts and what to use to make straight cuts.